Drive up to St Malo, hop on Condor Ferries and in less than an hour and a half you will be in St Helier, Jersey.
Only fifteen minutes on the bus from St Helier, is St Brelade’s College English Language School.

It is situated near the beautiful little harbour of St Aubin’s Bay, which has lots of bars and restaurants.
Founded in 1978 by the current owner’s father, the school has 12 classrooms, a student lounge and two internet/self-study rooms. They have also recently added a large wooden chalet which will be used by students for social events.

It is open all year round and provides English courses for all ages and interests.
Students can stay with host families, in a residence, or in local hotels.
There is a wide range of social activities in the afternoons and evenings and the school is accredited by The British Council.

A language course in Jersey has certain advantages:
1. Travel costs are reduced
2. Easy to get to
3. Beautiful island
4. Lots to see and do
5. Safe

Richard and I visited St Brelade’s College recently and found the staff there very welcoming. We think that you will find the courses they offer very interesting and Jersey is a lovely place to visit at any time of year.

A quick trip to Jersey

If you want a taste of English life, if you fancy a weekend away, or just a day's shopping and a chance to practise your English, why not pop over to Jersey?

Shopping:
Want to go for the day? It's great for Christmas shopping! Just take the early morning boat, then shop till you drop*, and get the late afternoon ferry back.
There are two department stores in the main street: Voisins and De Gruchy. You can buy luxury goods, shoes, bags, clothes, homeware etc. in these shops.
Also in the main street you will find book shops, jewelers, Clarkes shoe shop (much cheaper than in France), lots of clothes shops and all the famous UK brands such as Monsoon, Next and Marks & Spencer’s.
If you are going with a really trendy teenager – then have a look around Jack Wills, a quintessentially* British style that English university students love.
There are lots of little side streets to investigate, and one of them has a fantastic indoor market.
If you want to buy typically English food, you can have a look around the food department of Marks & Spencer’s for biscuits, cakes, chocolate, cheese, sausages and other goodies which you can’t buy in France.

What to eat:
If you arrive early in the morning, my advice is to go and have an English breakfast somewhere – there are lots of cafés which offer this, and if you stay at The Inn hotel, cooked breakfast is included in the price.

If you just had a "continental breakfast", and you are feeling peckish* at lunch time, go and find a pub and have fish ‘n chips, or jacket potato. Pub grub* is usually very good!

If you are staying overnight, there are lots of restaurants to choose from, but I usually head for Jaipur opposite the bus station near Liberty Square, which is a wonderful Indian restaurant.

Where to stay:
Jersey is a tourist island, so there are plenty of hotels to choose from. We usually stay at The Inn, because it is an easy walking distance from the town, the staff are extremely helpful, the food is great and the hotel has a young vibe* to it. There is quite often live music too. The Inn offers fantastic value for money.

Not far from The Inn is The Savoy. This hotel has a more formal and grown up atmosphere. The rooms are very comfortable, the food is excellent and every Friday a jazz band plays in the bar. You don’t have to be a resident to go to the jazz evening – but you will have to book a table if you want to be sure of a seat.

The Savoy also does a particularly good "Afternoon Tea"

If you are feeling rich, or if you want to have a very special weekend – then you could stay at Longueville Manor, an extremely beautiful and expensive five star hotel. However, one way of having a taste of Longueville Manor without breaking the bank, is by treating yourself to lunch there. If you go on a special occasion such as your birthday or wedding anniversary, you won’t be disappointed. It is very high class, so I wouldn’t recommend taking children .

Getting around:
Take a taxi from the port to your hotel - it's by far the easiest solution.

You can easily visit all parts of the island by using the local bus service. Jersey bus drivers are absolutely charming and will tell you when to get off the bus. You can get a timetable from your hotel or from the bus station in St Helier.

You can also hire a car, but make sure you get quite a small one, because Jersey streets are very narrow and winding out in the countryside. The island isn’t very big so you can easily drive all round and all over it in a day. If you book in advance, the car hire company will bring the car to your hotel – this is much better than queuing with everyone else when you arrive at the port.

Driving around the island is the best way to come across the famous Jersey cows. Stop at the side of the road and they will probably wander over to say hello to you.

What to do and what to visit:

There is loads to do on Jersey! But obviously much depends on your age, your taste and what time of year you go there.
A “Must See” is the Jersey War Tunnels museum. This is great for kids as it is an interactive museum. It is underground though, so make sure you wear something warm – even in summer – and it’s not for people who are claustrophobic.

There is also a zoo on the island, as well as forts, castles, and museums and a beautiful coastline with lovely beaches. There are lots of musical events, a theatre, plenty of bars, water sports etc.

The streets are an open-air art gallery.....you never know what you might see!

How to get there:
It only takes about 80 minutes on Condor Ferries from St Malo to St Helier – the main town on Jersey. – and it’s not very expensive if you go as a foot passenger.

VOCABULARY
* Shop till you drop = shop and shop and shop until you are extremely tired
*feeling peckish = a little bit hungry
* Pub Grub = home made food in pubs - usually very English and very good value for money.
* vibe = a modern word for 'atmosphere'
*quintessentially English = totally/completely/perfectly / typically English

Sissinghurst, Kent

May 29, 2011 - 16:17 | English Connection

Sissinghurst is a lovely little village in the county of Kent in south east England. It is full of pretty pubs, churches, red brick houses and quaint little buildings which are used as shops and banks.

In this part of Kent you can also see houses with very strange roofs.

These are called "Oast Houses". Originally they were used to dry hops which grow in this area and are used to make beer.

There is also a little castle which was originally built in the middle ages. Since then various owners have added parts to it. At one point it was beautiful and grand enough to invite Queen Elizabeth I to stay there. But later the house fell into disrepair and in the late 17th century it became a prisoner of war camp. The French soldiers who were kept there did their best to destroy the castle. You can still see their graffiti carved inside the castle today.

By 1930 the castle was almost derelict and it was bought by an English woman called Vita Sackville West.
Vita was born in Kent in 1892, the daughter of Baron Sackville.

She led an interesting life, travelled extensively and got married at the age of 21 to a man who was a diplomat as well as a novelist & gardener. They had children, but as she and her husband had “an open marriage” she also had passionate love affairs with several prominent women (such as the novelist Virginia Woolf) throughout her adult life. She wrote many books and poems, but is probably best known as a gardener.

She bought Sissinghurst castle in Kent with her husband when she found she was unable to inherit her father’s house simply because she was a woman (it went to her uncle instead). Losing her family home broke her heart, but buying Sissinghurst made up for it a bit.

As well as the castle they also bought the surrounding farms and land and set about creating some beautiful gardens.

Her husband laid out the garden as a series of different “rooms” each with a different colour or theme and Vita, who wrote regular gardening articles for the Observer newspaper, did the planting. She is renowned for starting the fashion of having a “white” garden.

By 1938 the garden was open to the public, and it has remained one of the most loved and visited gardens in England. It was taken over by The National Trust in 1967

For further information about visiting times & prices visit the National Trust site below.

A Postcard from Cornwall

August 12, 2010 - 16:48 | English Connection

Hello everyone!

Are you all having a lovely holiday? Richard & I are in Cornwall at the moment. It is a wonderful place with a rugged coastline; crashing Atlantic waves; tiny fishing villages; stories of pirates & witches; pretty pubs; Cornish Cream Teas; lovely, golden, sandy beaches and fabulous restaurants owned by celebrity chefs.

We are staying with friends who live in a fishing village called Padstow. It is a very lively place with lots of shops and restaurants, the most famous (and expensive) being “The Seafood Restaurant” which is owned by Rick Stein who is a famous chef with his own TV series.

However, the cheapest place to eat in the UK is in the pub. Good “pub grub” can be found in most villages. English pubs are usually very friendly, comfortable places and the food is usually home cooked. In Padstow, the pubs compete to be the most charming. Which of these three would you choose to go to?

You can take the ferry over to Rock, and if you are lucky you might see Prince William & his friends there.

The beaches are lovely! (This photo was taken from Rock looking over to Padstow)

Don't forget your bucket and spade!

There is also a very pretty little church in Rock which was entirely covered in sand in the 1800s. It was rediscovered after a storm revealed the spire of the church.

In the graveyard is the final resting place of Sir John Betjeman, who was a famous British poet. (In fact I had to study his poetry for my English exams at secondary school!)

Returning to Padstow, you will always find some sort of street entertainment to watch and listen to, as the port is very lively.

There is also a large and majestic hotel which serves wonderful Cornish Cream Teas. The cream is special Cornish clotted cream which is really delicious.

Further up the coast are two interesting villages.

Boscastle: which is famous for its witches!
There is a Museum of Witchcraft. Outside the door the sign says “Witches, please park your brooms here.”

But the most famous Cornish village is probably Tintagel, which is visited by thousands of tourists every year from all over the world as it is the centre of Arthurian legend. You can climb over the ruins of the 12th Century castle which juts out to sea. However this castle was built on an even older one, which is claimed to be the home of King Uther Pendragon and his son, King Arthur.

This is the church in Tintagel.

And this is the old post office.

See you soon,
Love from Bronwen

Travel Info: To get to Cornwall, go with Brittany Ferries from Roscoff to Plymouth. It takes about one and a half hours in the car to reach the northern Cornish coast. Weather: variable - take swimsuits and rain macs! Good walking shoes are also essential as the coastline is very rugged.